Is wireless for you? When the average person hears the word, “Wireless”, they probably imagine ease of use on par with their cellphone – high performance and easy to navigate. Or, a wireless wifi network access. Think again.
Although for the right person and in the right application, wireless can be the best, most economical solution and sometimes the only way to go, wireless in the professional AV industry can be not all it’s cracked up to be.
In my 30 years in this business, my experience with wireless microphones for audio and now with wireless video is that it can be very beneficial but also very temperamental.
Transmitters and receivers require careful placement and calibration. Now with digital transmitters and receivers, you often have to wait for the two to “handshake” which can take up to 2-3 minutes depending on their proximity to each other.
If they are operating on a bad frequency they can be affected adversely by (wifi) frequencies already present in the room. They can also be affected by extraneous RF noise from fluorescent lighting, HVAC, etc.
If the person in charge of its use is not good with technology and doesn’t follow the setup instructions to a tee, it may not work at the worst possible time.
So, wireless does not equate to magical results. It can however get you from point A to point B -- the back of your church sanctuary to the podium when there is no other practical way to do it. It can also save you time and money on installation labor that it takes to install wire beneath the floor or above the ceiling.
In this little country church, after a lengthy learning curve (thanks to Murphy’s Law), wireless is finally working well.
Roscoe Christian Church - screen and projector installation
Roscoe Christian Church - speaker and audio installation
